Posts tagged ‘Panorama’

It probably should not come as a surprise to anyone in New England, but this winter is obviously not giving up without a fight. It should be a nice spring morning and really it is. It’s just that it is snowing. Again…. Photography brings solace, so here are some more photo thoughts from the Quabbin Reservoir, the Winsor Dam area inside Quabbin Park. You can click on the images for a better view.

Black and White somehow feels like a presentation more appropriate to the mood though.

And for those interested in the details, here is a panorama taken from the Bridge of the ice and the budding reflections we can see in the puddles left by a recent rain. If you want to see it really large, you can find it on Gigapan here.

Is it spring yet? No.

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Had a wonderful weekend in Newport, Rhode Island with the family. Increasingly we like to hit the road for Holidays. Newport was festive, in a quiet sort of way. Walking from the hotel to the restaurant we noted the incredible sunset scene over the harbor. I had the camera, but it was pretty dark. My wonderful daughter Molly suggested using one of the pier pilings for a camera support. ISO up to 3200 and here we go. This is real panorama so you’re going to have to click on it to enjoy.

Thanks Molly! Newport is known for its mansions, but it’s really about the sea. I chose to focus on the sea for this visit. In the Harbor, terrific reflections for abstracts. (The remaining images are smaller panoramas, still worth a click.

Along the eastern Cliff Walk, the Ocean.

Much to be Thankful for….

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Indeed in did. Last week I was complaining about how dry it was in central New England. Things are a bit better now since the tropical pump passed through. We had a couple of days of stormy weather. (Click on the images for a better view.)

The rain did make for some dramatic and very welcome water flows, not just for photographers, but for the entire ecosystem. This particular branch of the Swift River at Gate 30 was frighteningly low last week. Yesterday, you wouldn’t want to step in it. I’d estimate that the water passing by, at very high speed, was about eighteen inches deep. That’s about right in my experience. September should be our wettest month.

If everything looks deeply saturated, that’s the effect of the water on the leaves and rocks. It’s quite beautiful. In the image above, the saturation was accentuated just a bit with a circular polarizing filter on camera that takes the glare out of the water. But nearly everything looks beautiful in this light even without a polarizer.

But the water level in the Quabbin Reservoir is still low. Here’s the Swift River flowing from the spillway.

The spillway “spills” water the good citizens of Boston don’t need. We checked our library to see if the flow in September was comparably low in previous years. Indeed, that appears to be the case. However, the actual spillway, from which the water “spills” appears to be maybe three or four feet lower this year than previous years. You can’t refill a body of water that big quickly, so in essence, our situation remains the same.

Oh well, perhaps we’ll get some snow soon! Till next time……

Technical note: Images 2 (a panorama composed of about seven shots), 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 above were all shot with a new Nikon Lens, the 28 – 300 mm. super zoom. Normally you shouldn’t expect much from a lens like this. Every lens design represents a set of compromises and here, the compromise is weight and cost (to some extent, it’s still expensive). In my efforts to develop a nature photo kit of cameras and lenses I could take on very long hikes, for me, 3 miles and up, I wanted to give this lens a try. In essence, I’d have to say that Nikon has done a good job here. You can’t see these things on a computer screen, but these images are pretty sharp and quite printable. However, this lens is a slow lens, f 5.6 at 300 mm. That means you’ve got to really crank up the ISO if you want to work without a tripod. So my advice would be to make sure you’ve got a camera that can handle such an assignment, or, use a tripod. I used a Nikon D3s, shooting at between 800 and 2000 iso in this case. I normally shoot with a tripod, but it was raining at times and I was trying to work fast. (Clearly the first shot would have benefited from a tripod and slower shutter speed, but that was taken during a torrential downpour. Shot 6 obviously was taken on a tripod as I was trying to blur the water movement and a tripod is the only way to do so.) The bottom line: this is a good lens. It won’t replace your best lenses, but if you need to hike some serious distances, your back will thank you.

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You’ll see a new splash page when you open the site as well as a new banner at the top of my blog. This is a panorama, not big enough for Gigapan I’m afraid, of the Harvard Pond, in Harvard Forest, Petersham. This is a lovely spot, right off Route 122. We happened to be driving by and noticed this beautiful island with some very interesting tress. The autumn foliage colors made the day. Harvard Forest is owned by Harvard College and represents a significant effort on their part to engage in ecological research and practice related to forest management. This is a very worthwhile place and you can read more about it here:

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I’m very involved in creating panoramas, and you can see, in small size, some of that work here. I’ll be posting more of my panoramas on Gigapan.org which is a fascinating site, sponsored my organizations such as NASA. Look around when you get the chance. You’ll see a pano that I did in early August from a roof top in New York City, if you go to

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Welcome to the environmental photography and sustainability blog of James M. Hunt. Chris, my wife, and I care deeply about our natural environment and in particular those places, beings and phenomena that may not get the attention that they deserve, in spite of their importance. Since the places we tend to frequent may receive a bit less attention, we're often engaged in a process of discovery ourselves. We'll let you know here something of what we learn along the way. Thanks for taking the time to join us.

All images on this site are copyright (c) James M. Hunt, 2010 through 2018 all rights are reserved. No use of any image posted here without written consent.
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FINE ART PRINTING OF WESTBOROUGH
James is also the proprietor of Fine Art Printing of Westborough, a printing, scanning, and photo restoration business operating in Westborough, Massachusetts. You can see the link below. Inquiries are welcomed!